DuckDuckGo Signals Entry Into Desktop Browser Market

security week ^ | 12/27/2021 | Ryan Naraine

[bitt]

Gabriel Weinberg’s DuckDuckGo is taking aim at the desktop browser market, betting that default privacy-centric settings will provide safer alternatives to Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Chromium-based Edge browsers.

The upstart search engine company says it is building a desktop browser from scratch with the same privacy-enhancing defaults that makes the DuckDuckGo search engine popular with privacy advocates.

Weinberg, who co-founded DuckDuckGo in 2008 and expanded beyond search into email protection and mobile app tracking, said the new desktop browser will attempt to make things simple for confused web surfers.

"No complicated settings, no misleading warnings, no 'levels' of privacy protection – just robust privacy protection that works by default, across search, browsing [and] email," Weinberg declared.

Instead of forking the open-source Chromium, Weinberg said the company is building its browser around the OS-provided rendering engine. “This lets us strip away a lot of the unnecessary cruft and clutter that’s accumulated over the years in major browsers,” he added.

“It's not a 'privacy browser'; it's an everyday browsing app that respects your privacy because there's never a bad time to stop companies from spying on your search and browsing history,” Weinberg added.

The move into the desktop market comes as DuckDuckGo sees growth in the mobile space with app downloads on both Android and iOS surging to power more than 100 million searches per day.

The company did not provide any technical details on the new browser or say when it would be available for desktop computers.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

The upstart search engine company says it is building a desktop browser from scratch

From scratch? Or from chromium? If from scratch, it's going to be a long climb toward a stable browser with good support for modern standards.

[Tell It Right]

I use Duck Duck Go as my default search engine and it’s almost always the best for me.

Every now and then I get better results with Bing, but that’s usually when I look up Microsoft-specific stuff in IT (ie tips for Visual Studio, C#, or TSQL).

[VanShuyten]

“I asked GEek Squad to make my browser DuckDuckGo. Why is Bing coming up, is what I want to know.”

The DDG browser is available for Apple and Android but only as an add-on for Windows Edge. I use it on my IPad, but don’t want it on my Edge as just an extension.

It works fairly well on my IPad, but sometimes I have to change back to Safari because DDG won’t run some videos or audios.

[Maris Crane]

I am so pleased I went with StartPage.com.

I does depend on goog for some info, but it is very private and seems to give me good results

[thoughtomator]

DDG does woke hiring and is a lost cause. Full wokeness will come, just a matter of when.

[ShadowAce]

[ptsal]

Right now, I like Gibiru.com for vanilla searches using the Brave private window.

[ptsal]

Is that a Don’t Look Up message?

---

From a friend, don’t google Elephant Reproduction for images.

[Sun]

I use Duck Duck first, and usually have good luck. When I don’t, then I go to Bing. Google is too dishonest and lefty for me to use.

[Pollard]

I’m sure you and a hundred other people are interested in having that outdated looking colorful mess. It looks like Walt Disney threw up on your browser.

[LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget]

Its a PEBKAC error. (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair :-) ) These are the most common errors with computers.

You don’t understand the diff between a browser and a search engine. The Browser is your rotary dial phone. The search engine is the operator which connects you to what you are looking for. They are not the same.

Google, Bing, DuckDuck, Yandex, Yahoo, etc are search engines. (Operators)

Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, Brave, etc are browsers. (Phones)

You open your browser (pick up the phone) and a search engine (operator) comes up which is the default set for your browser (phone). You can use a different search engine by typing the address like “google.com” in the place you can type at the top of your screen, but the default is used if you do not do that.

Here is how to change which search engine your browser uses.

https://kinsta.com/blog/how-to-change-search-engine/

[Pollard]

I just run multiple browsers. I keep more tabs open in firefox than any and still use firefox for the simple reason that I can scroll horizontally through the tabs and they never get so tiny that I can’t tell what they are.

I generally run three browsers, Firefox, Waterfox and Brave but also have Falkon(Linux/Ubuntu) for a special use case. I rarely sign into websites with firefox.

Every once in a while I go through all my open tabs and either bookmark and close them or just close them.

[Pollard]

I run Kubuntu which runs KDE apps and Plasma desktop and as such, has a native browser called Falkon which is based on QtWebEngine which is a stripped down version of the Chromium Core.

Qt itself https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qt_(software)#History_of_Qt

(Is a widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces as well as cross-platform applications that run on various software and hardware platforms such as Linux, Windows, macOS, Android or embedded systems with little or no change in the underlying codebase while still being a native application with native capabilities and speed.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE_Plasma_5#Software_architecture

Kubuntu with the Plasma desktop which is written in Qt so Qt is the closest thing to an OS rendering engine for this and many other Linux desktops. It’s fast and efficient and works with most Operating systems including mobile. I would think it would be a good choice for duckduckgo to use and would save them some work.

This 7 year old Thinkpad screams with Kubuntu/Plasma. Granted it has good specs for it’s age but it’s the fastest Linux I’ve ever used on any machine. I just stuck it on a few older laptops here in the past week as I plan to sell them. Replaced Lubuntu on one and it’s considered a light version of Linux but Kubuntu/Plasma is fancier and faster. I do need to upgrade RAM on a couple of them because 1GB just isn’t squat. One can be bumped up to 4GB and the other 8gb.

It will be interesting to see what they come up with and see if they even bother with a Linux version. Seems they could use Qt for most anything and have most Linux covered that way.

[CedarDave]

I couldn’t get DDG to work on Firefox installed with the No Script add-on. I finally whitelisted it on No Script and it works fine now. Don’t know why No Script blocked it as it lets other browser choices through with no problem.

[Dr. Sivana]

I’m sure you and a hundred other people are interested in having that outdated looking colorful mess. It looks like Walt Disney threw up on your browser.

Attacking something for being aesthetically "outdated" is the worst POSSIBLE argument I can think of against the design of a user interface. I can think of no good argument against having damn near unlimited customization on modern browsers. I certainly wish I could have menu bars available as a default instead of the "hamburger" because the browser on my 42" screen has to accommodate a browser whose UI seems to be targeting 5" phones first.

[Candor7]

Ping to impending privacy browser.

[Bob434]

True, but let’s be honest, it does look,like Disney there up on the desktop lol ( I’m not saying it isn’t useful, it is, it’s just kinda, well, out there lol 😄)

[Bob434]

But you are right, one shouldn’t be insulted for preferring something that you or I don’t like.

[Pollard]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and has nothing to do with functionality I suppose.

If I had my browser set up like that, there would be no room left for the web page. I’m running a laptop with a 15” screen at 1920x1080 pixel resolution.

Browser customization is strictly via addons/extensions and the creators of them create for purposes they desire. I’ve never found one I like for tab management so I use multiple browsers. I hate using a Mozilla product but firefox is the only browser that allows scrolling horizontally and prevents tabs from becoming so small there’s no text visible. Other browsers just keep shrinking them down so small they’re useless. I also run Waterfox and it’s my preferred browser because they’re kind of anti-Mozilla - pro-privacy. https://www.waterfox.net/

Yes, Mobile First is the current design preference for all things web because phone usage has surpassed PC. Some desktop programs are even taking on the look of an app. That’s progress for ya.

[Dr. Sivana]

Yes, Mobile First is the current design preference for all things web because phone usage has surpassed PC. Some desktop programs are even taking on the look of an app. That’s progress for ya.

And that was behind the idea of Windows 8 UI, and we know how that worked out. Very few companies are capable of force feeding us the stuff we OUGHT to have rather than the stuff we want. Steve Jobs was a man who could do that better than almost all (Jony Ive by himself is just a jerk).

When all movement seems to put things in the "Cloud" that don't get any inherent benefit from being in the "Cloud" other than letting the mothership keep tabs on you, it is not progress. You obviously agreed because your setup smells like one that was meticulously pieced together to work the way you want to work.

Even if people use phones "more" that doesn't mean that it is a net gain to program for phones "first". Real work (not playing videos or finding a location on a map) often benefit from a big screen and a real keyboard, and programs and UIs should be based on net convenience, or even by having multiple interfaces. Heck you can even tell when I post from a phone because of the unavoidable typos.MacOS is not iOS, even though they both use ARM. Beats the crap out of Microsoft's forcing two billion Windows users to adapt to yet another new interface designed for a failed mobile interface that is used by nobody except NFL employees.

I miss personal computing.